The Family Assistance Education & Research Foundation (FAERF) has been at the forefront of the evolution of emergency management, combining the head-heart approach for a fully integrated response to survivors of traumatic loss. Practicing consciousness in the workplace involves caring for people first, without exception.
Written by: Carolyn V. Coarsey, Ph.D.
October 2025
The Original Numbers for Care Team Responses
As training and preparation of care and special assistance teams has evolved to meet the needs of the business organizations they serve, these changes necessitate updated leadership models. When I first interviewed survivors of losses in the workplace, the focus was on airline accidents involving large numbers of passengers and crew members. For example, July 17, 1996, when TWA 800 crashed shortly after takeoff from New York’s JFK airport, all 230 on board perished. Of that death count, there were 18 working crew members and 20 off duty TWA employees. Fourteen flight attendants meant to work the Paris-Rome leg of the flight were among the 20 “off duty” employees killed.
The original model for care team response called for two team members per survivor, i.e., families of those on board, or passengers when they lived through the tragedy. In addition to this potentially large number of employees needed to assist families, coordinators and managers were a necessity in order to supervise those involved in supporting survivors post-crash.
Care Team Responses Today Involve Fewer On-Scene Responders and Less Care Team Members
Today, interviews with leaders of care and special assistance teams from multiple industry responses, show two major differences. First, many activations over the last couple of decades, including the California wildfires of early 2025, involve completely remote responses. Secondly, many companies assign care team members to support employees and their families to assist in non-work-related incidents and accidents, in addition to corporate crises. The average number of team members deployed today, is one or two, and they are supervised remotely by one manager or corporate coach.
Managing Care Teams Remotely
The FAERF Institute is helping address newer leadership challenges in two ways. First, early December, the second elective for the Practitioner’s Certificate in the International Humanitarian Assistance Response Program (I-HARP)™, Managing Care Teams Remotely, will be released. The course is designed to provide the participant with lessons learned from numerous remote responses we at the Foundation have led.
While virtual responses were not new for us at the Foundation, limitations placed on companies during the pandemic, increased the need for this type of activation, where survivors receive support over the phone. Another type of response which calls for remote leadership pertains to crises involving natural tragedies, and other mass disasters, where the community infrastructure is badly compromised. In communities that are already challenged to feed, house, and provide for their own communities, bringing in outsiders who also need food, water, accommodations, and physical safety, poses unnecessary distress on communities already suffering from the disaster.
Lesson Two, Managing Care Teams Remotely, will feature experienced leaders as well as care team members who have responded to crises, both in person and remotely. The interviewees will describe the differences from their respective positions, and present lessons learned, along with tips to others intended to shorten the learning curve at the time of the crisis response.
Updated Training for Leaders of Care and Special Assistance Teams (2025)
Following Completion of the Practitioners Certificate, those who lead the teams are eligible for a program on managing care team members during a response. The course will be based on interviews with Foundation members who lead teams for their companies. Since activating one or two team members as opposed to scores of people as in a mass casualty deployment is quite different, leaders will be asked to discuss processes and procedure from the point of notification of the team all the way through post-deployment activities. While discussions of leadership during mass casualty deployments will also be included, response models from the nineties, when the models were first developed, at FAERF, will no longer dominate the lessons on leadership.
The interviews are slated to begin in November, and the leadership course should be ready by the end of first quarter, 2026.
About I-HARP™
The I-HARP™ course is available to all members of the Family Assistance Education and Research Foundation (FAERF) and is ideal for professionals involved in Humanitarian Assistance Response, crisis management, corporate emergency teams, and anyone seeking to enhance their ability to support others during traumatic events. The program combines self-paced online lessons, knowledge checks, and recommended resources to deepen understanding, offering flexibility for busy professionals. Participants who complete the program receive a digital Certificate of completion and badge issued through Accredible, which can be proudly displayed on professional profiles or email signatures.
Elective 2 will be presented in a live webinar on December 3, and details on how to sign up will be shared soon — so stay tuned!
Don’t forget that if you’ve already attended MHFA training or participated in one of the Member Partner Meetings in 2024, you’ve already completed your electives and are well on your way toward earning your I-HARP™ Practitioner Certificate. Congratulations to our first graduates – Survivor of AA 1420 – Kristy Sheridan, two The Walt Disney Company leaders – Patrick Collera-Ricca and Jennifer Miller as well as two UPS pilots – Tammy Gilder and Christopher Cahill!
Click here to enroll in the I-HARP™ Certificate Program.